Plants associated with water towers in the Saharan environment: Floristic diversity and therapeutic virtues

Abstract

Water in arid regions plays a vital role in the existence and development of living beings. The main aim of this work is to study the diversity and therapeutic properties of plant species that grow in the vicinity of water towers (constructions used to store and distribute drinking water) in the Saharan environment (south-western Algeria). Twenty-two floristic surveys were carried out in five representative sites to study the floristic diversity. The biological and phytogeographical spectra were established, and the therapeutic properties were determined for each plant species inventoried. The results show that the floristic richness is of the order of 41 species belonging to 39 genera and 16 botanical families, the most represented of which are the Asteraceae (19.51%) and Poaceae (17.07%). The biological spectrum showed the existence of 20 species of therophytes, and the phytogeographic spectrum indicated that most of the inventoried plant species belonged to the Saharo-Arabian biogeographic element (31.7%). The leaves (51.22%) are the most used for therapeutic aspects, while decoction is the most commonly used preparation method (60.98%). The plants with the highest importance values are Calotropis procera (27.78%), Phoenix dactylifera (16.67%), Cynodon dactylon and Tamarix gallica (15.56% each). This study shows that the various plant species inventoried offer important therapeutic properties for treating various pathologies.

Keywords

• arid zones
• medicinal plants
• pathologies
• plant diversity
• valorisation